I wish I was joking, but another bout of sexual harassment against women creeped up this week (only days after the Might No. 9 fiasco). This time in the form of an indi video game a woman is trying to get green-lit to Steam. The game is about depression and is just suppose to help people understand what it’s like living with it, and for this “grievous” action she’s been the target of harassment campaigns. She’s received harassing phone calls, death threats, her personal information and addresses posted for everyone to see. She’s had to change her phone number to stop the harassment, and even pulled the game originally to try and calm this crap down.

Bravely, she’s decided to post it anyway and is trying desperately to showcase how awful, hurtful, and disgusting our gaming community can be when we stay silent.

You can “justify” your reasons for hating her. You can convince yourself that sending her harassment and hate messages is for the “greater good.” But you can’t convince me that the amount of hatred and psychological damage this harassment campaign is producing is ok. I’m so sick to death of anyone thinking that harassment is acceptable behavior towards ANYONE, male or female, for whatever reason.

There’s the old saying “don’t feed the trolls,” but I’m beginning to fear that this is a complacent statement. That by ignoring the trolls we are indirectly encouraging negative behavior because they know they can get away with it. And I think that needs to stop. I’m beginning to think we need to show the world how sick and disgusting this behavior is. To point it out and make everyone AWARE of how shitty the internet has become. And you know what? If that means having to regulate the internet somehow... I can’t say I have much sympathy for what little freedom we might lose in the process.

I’m all for free speech, but free speech isn’t a “get out of jail” pass for shitty behavior. It is not a magical shield you can hide behind so that you can throw out racist, sexual, or offensive slurs at whomever you’re angry at this week. We don’t tolerate harassment in real life at our jobs, in social environments, or between friends... so why should we tolerate it on the internet?

I’ve been asked a lot what the difference between giving “honest” criticism and so-called “trolling” is. And this is a fine example. This is trolling. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. This is not criticism. This is outright harassment of a independent developer trying to get her game greenlit on Steam. A game that would (if you didn’t like it) have no impact on your life one way or the other. A game that should succeed or fail by it’s own merits and not because a group of people don’t deem it “worthy” enough to be allowed to even EXIST.

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." ~Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

Allowing a corrupt government that is already spoiling for excuses to completely lock down and destroy the internet to regulate cyberbullying will only pave the edge of the slippery slope. Do I agree that these bullies should be punished? Yes, and frankly I would like them all STERILIZED so they stop polluting the gene pool with their shit. Do I think we should ask Uncle Sam to do it? HELL NO, because Uncle Sam is no longer Uncle Sam anymore, he's Big Brother NSA and itching for an open door to obliterate the last true avenue of free speech. We MUST police ourselves. How, I don't know. But government will demand a price too dangerous to accept.

This is actually a good argument for monitoring the internet. Never really liked that idea but if it got rid of trolls then I'd have to weigh out the good and bad to decide which is better, and it'd be close.

The issue isn't if women are targeted (which is an issue if it's mostly women but i won't get into that), the issue is that one specific woman was targeted purely because she wanted her game on Steam. How is that cause for outrage?

Very good journal man, thank you SO MUCH for standing up against things like this (harassment disguised as "free speech").

Ironically, too many people don't say anything because they are afraid to get targeted themselves, so it makes me even happier that someone like you is NOT SCARED and is speaking up for people who have such bad things happening to them. You are one of the few people here who are very popular and are actually using that popularity to try to help others, and I hone that deeply no matter what others are trying to make this look like!

There's a diffrence between trolling and harassment. A troll is someone who tries to derail a thread. "Don't feed the trolls" mean to ignore those people who try to derail the thread because arguing with them will only further derail it. "Don't feed the troll" doesn't not mean "turn a blind eye to harassment".

Oh my god this poor girl.... you know I just hate that there is people in total that want to be trolls. Going on the internet for the soul purpose of ruining someones day, or even life, by posting some shitty insensitive shit that was neither provoked or needed. Its pitiful to see them and there needs to be an instant report everywhere with a troll or harassment option, but I fear that it would be abused terrible / m \

I can totally relate to that. A bunch of SPlashkittyartist fans think I hate her when really I don't at all. They tell me my art sucks and stuff. I don't know if they're trolls or not, but even if I refuse to feed them, they still beg for attention >

Well, I honestly see the saying more as, don't make a big drama out of it. Like, don't give them the attention they want.. But not let them keep harrassing you (or anyone else you see being harrassed). If someone is doing wrong, tell them they did wrong, punish them (report!) if they still keep on doing it, and move on. I may not have worded it out the best way, but I hope you get what I mean.

>If that means having to regulate the internet somehow... I can’t say I have much sympathy for what little freedom we might lose in the process.

>I’m all for free speech

Do you realize how much cognitive dissonance exists in the space between those two statements?

Supporting free speech means supporting as few regulations around it as possible. Aside from direct calls for violence (incitement/'fighting words'), clearly illegal content (child porn), and defamatory statements, speech and expression should have as few limits as possible so that we may share a broad range of ideas without the fear of government censorship.

Any attempt to regulate free speech with broad, generalized terms (e.g. stopping 'harmful' speech) always goes awry because of how the lack of defined limits in such regulation leads to abuse of power in an attempt to 'do the right thing'. We place limits on incitement, defamation, etc. because we can place limits with enough clarity, definition, and narrow reach on those sorts of expressions without clamping down on all other forms of protected speech.

By saying you both support free speech and still want to see regulations against "trolling", you seem to have outed yourself as a supporter of the Preferred First Speaker doctrine (which holds that when Person A speaks, listeners B, C, and D should refrain from their full range of constitutionally protected expression to preserve the ability of Person A to speak without fear of non-governmental consequences that Person A doesn't like). You cannot support both the concept of truly free expression and the Preferred First Speaker.

I do agree with you about trolling in that it can turn ugly in a New York minute and we could (and should) do more to stem its tide, no matter if we witness the trolling from the sidelines or we end up subjected to it first-hand. Fighting trolling, however, requires an immense measure of humanity that we seem incapable of extending towards trolls. No matter how frustrating or disheartening or disturbing we find their actions, online trolls still have someone sitting at a screen -- and, far too often, we seem to forget that admist their deplorable actions.

We don't need regulations and laws and pitchfork media to fight trolls; that gets us nowhere. We need to have an actual dialogue -- and more than that, we need a sense of empathy and humanity that we'll willingly extend to trolls regardless of whether they return it in kind.

Stop fighting the trolls, stop acting like trolls, and start acting like a person who has a heart.

And for fuck's sake, stop calling for the regulation of speech you don't like. It makes you look awful.

*This garbage goes on in dA chatrooms as well and I thought the official dA chats were suppose to be friendly and welcoming. Even the rules clearly state certain things are against policy but still...people do it and think the acts are "funny".*

It's exactly like Cyberbullying. It's horrible and sad. Why can't people just understand the fact that trolling isn't funny? Are people really that desperate to get attention or have some sh*ts and giggles about it? It's hurtful to the person who is being talked down to.

I teeter between severe anxiety and severe depression and I know I'm not the only one so just to heed a warning to trolls, think before click send because you don't know that person. So one day you may say something so vile, it can push that person into putting a bullet in their brain. Trolls, to me, are no less than a criminal in the making...sorry!

The trouble is, with no grand agreement as to whether telling trolls off or not feeding them is the best course of action, neither happens, and we can't see which one is actually effective. To see which method actually had an effect, we would need to create controlled, double blind experiments comparing the results of a forum completely telling off trolls, to a forum completely ignoring them, and compare these with a control group (presumably employing the current ineffectual mix of approaches).

In the meantime, when you are on forums with effectual mods, report the behavior and have the trolls shut down. Further censorship is not likely to help.

You have a right to free speech, but I still get to call you an asshole right back. And when bashing anyone for any reason, free speech does not protect you from a punch in the face. Sure you have a right to say racists things, but if I hear you do it, you're getting tossed out of my bar/place of business because I can serve who I want. People need to know it isn't ok to just say shit that doesn't help anyone and makes them sound like a dick.

This guy is telling us how she was harassed endlessly and even given personal information about. This is clearly the works of the Cyberbully, who intends to 'harm you' rather than the Cyber Troll, who simply just want to make you look like an idiot or simply upset you by putting you in difficult situations or even scare you with jumpscares and such. Trolls are simply harmless creatures who spread nonsense and rumors all over the internet.

Cyberbullies want to actually bully you in a sense of feeling dominate or resentment. They want to make you look like an idiot as well as even hurt you or put you down. They want a reaction. Reactions keep them coming back. Reactions make them feel pleased and authoritative.

"Trolls are simply harmless creatures who spread nonsense and rumors all over the internet."

Face in hordes, such can be just as bad or even worse than one person cyber bullying. hen it blows out of proportion it is all just as bad, and that is what this journal is about.It is not okay when many go down on ONE person just because this person dared to make a game about depression. As a modern society and people with HEARTS we should not tolerate such behavior!

A: Loosely following stuff from the past, that was semi-witty, mostly.B: Labelling people and harrassing them.C: Making Judgements with Prejudice.D: Going Off On TangentsE: Plain ol' Making Shit Up

Any of these, are the Illogic of the Troll thing, and dissect em' by referring to how cliched it has gotten, and make comparisons to Witch-Hunts, And what about other Fantasy Creatures? This BS symptom-Lice Farm of Cunt-Fuck has gone to Cliched Apocalypse, and it needs to die.

One point I think people often over look about freedom of speech is the little catch at the end. By that I mean, that you have freedom of speech AS LONG AS YOU CAN TAKE RESPONSEBILITY FOR YOUR WORDS IN A COURT ROOM! At least, tha's how it is in Denmark.

"If that means having to regulate the internet somehow... I can’t say I have much sympathy for what little freedom we might lose in the process."

Do you have ANY idea how bad that would be? If humanity created an international authority that had the power to regulate everyone's speech in all conversations, that wouldn't cost us a little freedom. It would cost us ALL of it.

Creating something like that would be creating a monster to solve your immediate problem. Sure, your immediate problem gets destroyed, but so does everything else, because you can't stop the beast once you turn it loose. And speaking of turning, it might turn on you.

"Don't feed the trolls" still applies and should never die. People who harass people like this aren't trolls. True trolls are people who hide behind their computer screens so they can say nasty things to make people mad, and that's all they do. When you do more than that, you transform from troll to something worse.

Just ignore them Tom, it's the only real answer. "Protesting" against them and requesting "a fix" to the internet, which may never happen, or any other sort of offense move will only ignite and continue their negative behavior.

Just ignore them is all there really is to do. They will stop. Eventually. We need to hold off as long as us defenders can until they do.